What is woke? It's a set of ideas with a lot of influence, but they're often ill-defined so this piece by @Psythor is very useful. In the spirit of continuing that project, here's what I'd add/ disagree with.🧵
1) James starts with “identitarian deference”, an idea coined by @MattBruenig to describe how “privileged individuals should defer to the opinions and views of oppressed individuals"
In this characterisation, if you're debating racism, those with first-hand experience of racism have a kind of trump card that beats everything else — facts, reason etc.
This is an extreme idea and one that has problems (what if two oppressed individuals disagree?) and as always we have a measurement problem. How many people really support this idea?
However, James is right that one of woke's ideas is that people directly affected by an issue ("lived experience") should be included ("centred" even) in debates about it.
James argues a moderate version of this is obvious ("Of course…views of women should carry more weight in debates over abortion") but that underestimates how much this breaks with the liberal/enlightenment idea that a speaker's ID has no bearing on the merits of their argument.
Also, even if the idea of including minority voices was obvious, it wasn't acted on. There's been a big diversity push in public life in the last 10 years, evident everywhere from politics to experts on TV. I think wokeness can claim some credit for this.
2) The next element of woke, as James sees it, is that it prioritises harm reduction over free speech. E.g. woke Twitter worrying about the *lack* of censoriousness since Musk took over.
Here I'd say yes, woke puts more speech into the category of "harmful" (as opposed to just offensive). Though there is a new general caution around mental health which I'm not sure is distinct to woke. (I notice even Tory MPs complaining about getting abusive social media.)
Also, I agree there's a fresh scepticism that the best ideas win in a free speech environment and thus scepticism about whether free speech is worth supporting. (My liberal heart bleeds at this.)
3) Next up is intersectionality, the insight that someone can be oppressed in different ways (e.g. black women may experience both racism and sexism at the same time). I agree this is a key woke idea and for my money, a useful one.
(James says this translates into an ability to work with those from opposing sides on particular issues, a connection I don't follow.)
4) James says woke moves away from individual rights towards group or communitarian rights. Is reparations an example of this? Or policies explicitly for black people? Would like to know more.
5) James argues “woke is sceptical of progress". Hmmm… I agree faith in moral progress is part of liberalism , and that woke is less optimistic. (A contrast to MLK's "arc of the moral universe…"). But I see scepticism in progress as a conservative insight (a good one).
6) Lastly, James argues woke-types value loyalty to their cause over accuracy, and I don't think this is useful addition to this list. Most political movements are like this. Does Fox News support "accuracy norms"?
A good test for all of these attributes is is whether they can be applied to other political movements. For example some see in woke an obsession with victimhood. But doesn't everyone try and win sympathy? (Even Russia after invading Ukraine says it's a victim!)
(Similarly, I'd say there's nothing distinct about woke-types trying to control speech; being self-righteous; disregarding due-process; not putting their points across in a persuasive way; being unforgiving; cancelling opponents and acting in pseudo-religious ways.)
As I say, this is a really useful project. As @helenlewis and Aaron Rabinowitz discussed on @ETVPod there's a lack of woke popularizers and writers. So we need this.
Four quick ideas I also think are relevant:
a) New definitions of racism, including one based on power (thus black people can't be Racist to whites)
b) Interest in outcomes vs intentions. E.g. Ibrahim X Kendi's argument that any policy — even a interest rate change — which increases racial inequality is racist.
c) @Yascha_Mounk identifies (usefully) one woke idea as the "impossibility of mutual comprehension" e.g. a white person can never really understand racism. This idea can be good (try harder to hear from minority voices) or toxic (only a black writer can write a black character).
d) Cultural appropriation – though I feel society has absorbed and calmed down about this one now. (Though worth noting James got criticism for not acknowledging "woke"'s origins in black activism.)
Finally once thing I notice about woke is what it doesn't seem to include. It focuses on racism, gender & LGBTQ rights but not climate or poverty, which is odd as woke types like @AOC & @OwenJones84 talk about these topics a lot.
Originally tweeted by Brendan Miller (@brenkjm) on January 1, 2023.